M. Littre on 'demoniac affections,' a subject, in his opinion,
worthy of closer study. Outbreak of Modern Spiritualism. Its
relations to Greek and Egyptian Spiritualism recognised. Popular
and literary sources of Modern Spiritualism. Neoplatonic
thaumaturgy not among these. Porphyry and Iamblichus. The
discerning of Spirits. The ancient attempts to prove 'spirit
identity'. The test of 'spirit lights' in the ancient world.
Perplexities of Porphyry. Dreams. The Assynt Murder. Eusebius on
Ancient Spiritualism. The evidence of Texts from the Papyri.
Evocations. Lights, levitation, airy music, anaesthesia of Mediums,
ancient and modern. Alternative hypotheses: conjuring,
'suggestion' and collective hallucination, actual fact. Strange
case of the Rev. Stainton Moses. Tabular statement showing
historical continuity of alleged phenomena.

In the Revue des Deux Mondes, for 1856, tome i., M. Littre published
an article on table-turning and 'rapping spirits'. M. Littre was a
savant whom nobody accused of superstition, and France possessed no
clearer intellect. Yet his attitude towards the popular marvels of
the day, an attitude at once singular and natural, shows how easily
the greatest minds can pay themselves with words. A curious reader,
in that period of excitement about 'spiritualism,' would turn to the
Revue, attracted by M. Littre's name. He would ask: 'Does M.
Littre accept the alleged facts; if so, how does he explain them?'
And he would find that this guide of human thought did not, at
least, _reject_ the facts; that he did not (as he well might have
done) offer imposture as the general explanation; that he regarded
the topic as very obscure, and eminently worthy of study,--and that
he pooh-poohed the whole affair!